[Storify] An Indian writer in a series of tweets reflects how cruel London can be to immigrants

After Britain's decision to exit the European Union (EU), there has been a lot of talk about how it will affect the world economy and Britain's relations with the EU and other countries.

A community which has been drastically affected by Brexit is the immigrants of the UK.

It has been speculated that Brexit will have a huge impact on Britain's immigration policy, and the immigrants now feel that the UK has turned against them, and even London - one of the most developed cities in the world - seems to be an unsafe place for them.

Sunny Singh, an author of Indian origin currently living in London tweeted about the discrimination she faced for being a non-Londoner:

Her friend, Adnan R Siddiqui, tweeted back to Sunny about facing bigger ordeals in the past.

@sunnysingh_n6 we survived far worse in the past. Need to be optimistic, build alliances and not be cowed by the haters.

@AdnanRSiddiqui0 grim times

The tweets that followed are heart-wrenching and raises an important question at the same time, what will happen to the immigrants in the UK now?

@sunnysingh_n6 thank you for this and knowing you experienced pre-Brexit racism this has just validated your attackers.

Tweets poured in from people facing incidents of racial attack in the UK:

@sunnysingh_n6 I know. We have to find a way though. Because we are taught in patriarchal ways of conflict resolution. It's not working.

@CampbellX I am trying. Focussing on mentoring, on the positives but really hard.

@sunnysingh_n6 we need to find ways of tackling this with action fuelled by love. Though I have no answers.

@sunnysingh_n6 it's been feeling this way for a while now.

Sunny then posted a number of tweets about the impact of Brexit on immigrants in the UK:

My heart goes out to those who cannot leave. My awe and admiration for those who will choose to stand and fight for what is good in the UK.

Because you see, even before the referendum, UK had mastered the art of racism without the racists. Referendum just brought them out in open.

And for the not-quite-in-the-closet bigots in UK's newsrooms whose views are platformed in dogwhistles, expressed when mic/cameras go off.

And the saddest part? This was SO unnecessary! All of it. And all by/for a few immature, posh men with big egos who felt entitled to more.

So post-ref UK risks losing a generation or more of its finest who will chase safety, jobs, and yes, places without the open xenophobia.

I don't mean impoverish in just an economic sense. Educated, creative, entrepreneurial, and yes YOUNGER people are more able/willing to move.

And so are many Britons of Colour. And yes, these are all highly educated, middle class professionals whose departure will impoverish UK.

So a lot of foreign professionals are putting themselves on a 24 - 36 month timeline to leave the UK. A sort of individualised Article 50.

It is now socially acceptable to be xenophobic and racist in the UK. Pre-ref, it was there as a dirty secret you tried not to air in public.

Leave folk can contort themselves into all sorts of rationalisation but whether you recognised or not, your vote made xenophobia socially ok.

You don't need jackboots. You just need angry people who have been told that foreigners are to blame and given permission to discriminate.

Bullying at school. Refusal to serve at a pub. Increased job discrimination. Insulting the foreign doctor. Shouted abuse in the street.

So this rage will make daily life unpleasant, uncomfortable, and yes, outright dangerous for us 'foreigners' in small, quotidian ways.

But (though all bets are off given how 2016's going) there's less likelihood of UK reaching that stage. What WILL happen is at social levels.

Yes one part of UK history, few talk about was how people of 'enemy states' even if only by heritage were rounded up into camps! Look it up.

UK may never reach the stage of deporting people in cattle cars and putting up detention camps (btw you DO know it did that in WW2, right?)

And that means migrants and visible foreigners will be on the receiving end of that rage in covert and overt ways. And on a daily basis.

And when the economy doesn't miraculously row, promised jobs don't appear, the Empire's glory isn't magically recovered, the rage will grow.

Let me also be clear: this anti-immigrant rage encompasses those of migrant-heritage regardless of if they were born here, hashtags of generations.

Already it is clear that the rage is against ALL immigrants, not just the Europeans. And it won't abate regardless of what comes next.

Also economy itself will shrink, putting more vulnerable Britons at risk, and feeding the rage of those who blame immigrants for their woes.

So a sort of death spiral: economy needs migrants who are now at risk; fewer will come to UK and those who can, will move to better places.

In the meantime, the economy will get much worse +even if the whole thing is kicked into long grass, visibly different will be scapegoated.

If #Brexit does not go ahead, the elements encouraged and empowered by Leave will turn their anger and frustration on the visible foreigners.

In case of Brexit, far right's euphoria, and their empowerment by political discourse will make things very dangerous for anyone different.

Amongst non-UK and British PoC friends, there is growing consensus that things will get way worse for us no matter how #Brexit goes.

Finally, Sunny tweeted an article narrating the complications faced by immigrants in the UK. Read it here.